By The Time This Night is Over
by Nightcrawlerlover
Summary: AU. While Dawn and Harry dance in the Great Hall, Buffy remembers her and Dawn's mother Joyce, as well as a talk with Mrs. Weasley.


**Hey there! Here's a new Buffy/Harry Potter crossover oneshot I cooked up one day. It's an Alternate Universe, and the pairing is Dawn Summers/Harry Potter. **

**I was inspired to write this ****after ****I ****was looking through ****the Buffy wiki and ****read Dawn's line referring to Harry's school when she's talking to Joyce and Buffy in ****one scene from ****the ****BtVS Season 5 episode Real Me: "****Yeah, Mom, I'm not going to Hogwarts. Jeez, crack a book sometime". **

**I like that line, and I think it's very inspiring, as well as very awesome. Plus, Michelle Trachtenberg did an awesome job bringing Dawn's character to life in that episode and in many others as Dawn matured from the fourteen-year-old she was upon her introduction in Real Me to the sixteen-year-old warrior in the Season 7 episode finale Chosen.**

**The quote spoken by Albus Dumbledore at the end of this oneshot is from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (aka Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone).**

**Disclaimer: Genius J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. Joss Whedon (also a genius) owns Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I own the fanfics I cook up from time to time.**

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By The Time This Night Is Over

Sitting in a chair, her green eyes almost filling with tears, Buffy Summers sighed wistfully in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as she watched her seventeen-year-old sister, Dawn, dance to a waltz with none other than Harry Potter, who was also known as ‛The Boy Who Lived' and ‛the Chosen One'. Harry looked quite handsome in his dress robes, which were black with a white collar.

And, not for the first time, Buffy wished that her mother Joyce was still alive so she could share this beautiful moment with her.

Dawn was wearing dress robes of a beautiful pink color, and on her feet were beautiful red shoes. She felt that they were a good match. Her chocolate hair was tied back in a ponytail held by a pink hair band.

The song that was currently playing was one that Buffy had heard some time before, but couldn't quite place it at first – until she asked Harry's friend Hermione Granger.

"It's called ‛By The Time This Night Is Over', and it's by Peabo Bryson and Kenny G'," Hermione had told her. "It's a really beautiful song to listen to, especially when doing something such as writing a letter to someone as well."

Well, apparently Buffy understood that. After all, she had seen how wizards sent letters to each other using owls instead of the system that non-magical people (or ‛Muggles', as they were called by the wizarding world) would use – which was mostly successful because of how the post owls were very intelligent, and also able to find the recipient of their mail with little to no direction.

And Buffy had to admit that the wizarding world was quite different from the one in Sunnydale in California, but it was also very exciting, too.

Of course, she knew all about witches – as Willow Rosenberg, her best friend since sophomore year in high school back in Sunnydale, was one, and a very powerful one at that. Wizards and wands were something else, but she had taken the time to learn all about those. As a result, she felt she had heard about it from somewhere. So, at least that had to count for something.

Buffy then looked down at her own dress robes. They were an emerald color, and didn't have any lace on them at all. Instead, they were made of silk, and to Buffy, they looked very beautiful.

She then remembered Ron Weasley's mother Mrs. Weasley – or Molly, as she suggested Buffy call her – telling her about choosing and buying the green dress robes for Buffy one day.

"I thought they would bring out the color of your green eyes, Buffy, dear," she said.

Buffy smiled at the memory, as well as remembering how Mrs. Weasley did her best to comfort her while Buffy tearfully told her all about Joyce – the golden hair, the streak of sarcasm that she had passed on to Buffy and Dawn, and most importantly, how she was a loving mother figure to Willow and Alexander ‛Xander' Harris, Buffy's best male friend.

However, Buffy did find it hard to keep her composure when she told of how she had come home one day and found her mother lying on the couch, dead, and simply let the tears out.

"It was an aneurysm in her brain. There had been a brain tumor, and they were successful in getting it. But sadly, there were side effects that caused the aneurysm, which in turn killed her." Buffy looked at Mrs. Weasley, who patted her shoulder. "She passed away just as she had experienced a moment of happiness in her life. I still miss her, Molly – even to this day."

"I know, dear," replied Mrs. Weasley. "I know how you feel. I remember losing my mother as well. She was quite an extraordinary person to me, just as your mom was to you and Dawn. Of course, like all mothers and daughters do, my mother and I did have arguments, but rarely about anything major, though. But we always made up, of course."

Buffy couldn't help but smile at those words. Even now, she knew that Mrs. Weasley was right – her mother was quite an extraordinary person, and both she and Dawn would have memories of her – both good (such as the time when Buffy returned to Sunnydale after running away to Los Angeles and hugged Joyce in forgiveness, as Joyce felt regretful about kicking her out of the house after Buffy told her about her being the Slayer) and bad (like when Buffy came home and found her dead) – in their hearts as well.

And no matter what would happen to her and Dawn, Buffy knew that even though their mother was gone physically, she was still alive within them spiritually.

Like Professor Albus Dumbledore had once told Harry (who then later told Buffy and Dawn), "To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever".

Now, as she remembered those very words while watching Dawn and Harry as they walked over to her and comforted her, Buffy reached up and wiped the tears away.

Professor Dumbledore was certainly right about love in that way. Even though their mother was gone, her love would give Buffy and Dawn some protection forever, just as Harry's mother, Lily Potter, did with him.

Love. It was quite the enigma, but at least it was able to be expressed in so many ways...

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**Well, that's the end of this oneshot. And as usual, nice feedback is very much appreciated, too. After all, it not only warms the soul, it also helps me to cook up and write more stories as well, of course.**


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